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Shimajirō to Sora Tobu Fune 3D CG Anime Film Casts Keiko Han, Tomokazu Sugita

The staff for Benesse Corporation's Shimajirō anime franchise revealed two new cast members for the Shimajirō to Sora Tobu Fune (Shimajirō and the Flying Ship) 3D CG anime film last Friday. The new cast members include:

Keiko Han as Lily's mother (Keiko Han is the mother of Megumi Han, who plays the character Lily)

Tomokazu Sugita as the Garbiz boss who tries to stop Jin and Shimajiro from building their ship

Previously revealed cast members include:

Yūma Uchida as Jin, an inventor squirrel

Megumi Han as Lily, a character who builds a flying ship alongside Jin

Other previously revealed cast members include Omi Minami, Miki Takahashi, Takumi Yamazaki, Saori Sugimoto, and Minoru Inaba.

The film is billed as the franchise's first 3D CG anime film, and it will open on February 28.

The film's story centers on Jin, an inventor squirrel who lives in Greenwood, a land far beyond the sea. Rain has not come to Greenwood in a long while. To solve the land's problem, Jin decides to build a flying ship to make the rain fall, and he enlists Shimajirō's help.

Takamitsu Kawamura is directing the film, with a script by Masafumi Sugiura. Uchida is performing the film's theme song "Egao no Sora" (Smiling Sky).

The original Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirou television anime aired in Japan from 1993 to 2008. The sequel Hakken Taiken Daisuki! Shimajirō aired from 2008 to 2010 and continued under the new title Shimajirō Hesoka from April 2010 to March 2012. The Shimajirō no Wow! anime and variety series premiered in 2012, and was nominated in the Animation category of the International Emmy Kids Awards in October 2015. Eiga Shimajirō: Mahō no Shima no Daibōken (Shimajirō the Movie: Great Adventure on Magic Island), the franchise's first full-length, all-animation film, opened in Japan in March 2018. Another film opened last March.

Sources: Shimajirō franchise's website, The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web